


You Love the Limelight Too

by PoliticalBloodTea



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Fluff, Jealousy, M/M, Mild Angst, Oblivious Barry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-27
Updated: 2017-02-27
Packaged: 2018-09-27 04:42:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9965657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoliticalBloodTea/pseuds/PoliticalBloodTea
Summary: People won't stop flirting with Cisco.  Barry is not jealous.  He's not.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [st4rlabsforever (omaken)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/omaken/gifts).



> This fic was written for the [Fight Back Fic Auction](http://fightbackfic.tumblr.com/) and for [st4rlabsforever](https://archiveofourown.org/users/omaken/pseuds/st4rlabsforever) who generously donated to a good cause. If you would like to sign up for the auction and pick your own charity for people to donate to the March round is currently open for sign ups. You can also browse the author list to see if there is anyone you would like to commission. All the money goes to direct action charities, so let's all work together to make the world a little less dark.

Vibe’s public debut went over with a splash, to say the least. The consensus of the internet seemed to be “omg costume” “omg hair” “omg lips.” Central City was crushing hard on its newest hero. Everyone but Barry seemed to be enjoying the reaction immensely. 

They had all been summoned to the lab by a cryptic text from HR, and Barry cursed whoever gave him a phone, he was the one who had discovered the comments online – “It’s important to keep up with PR!” but Iris and Wally had eagerly taken up his thread and were holding court over the cortex, swooning and batting their eyelashes as they breathlessly acted out their favorite tweets.

“His mouth,” Iris sighed and something in Barry’s gut twisted, he shifted uncomfortably where he was leaning against the computer bank. “He can open a breach to my pants, if you know what I mean,” Iris continued with an over-exaggerated wink. Barry heard a quiet snort behind him. Julian and Caitlin were trying to pretend that they weren’t listening, holding themselves above the nonsense, but he could see the way both of them had to keep fighting down amused smiles.

Cisco wobbled his hand in a ‘so-so’ gesture. “No points for creativity.” Barry would have been collapsed into a red-faced puddle on the floor if everyone had decided to start reading embarrassing tweets about the Flash out loud, but Cisco was handling it well, Barry thought, creating his own fun by devising a rating system on the fly with HR. Iris pouted, and Barry realized that things were about to devolve into a competition between the West siblings. He didn’t have time to decide if he should intervene or not before Wally made a sound like a parrot being stepped on.

All eyes turned to Wally, who had the most horrified look Barry had ever seen on his face. Everything in Barry was telling him not to ask, but his curiosity had always been stronger than his self-preservation instinct. “What?”

Wally opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out, he took a second to steel himself and tried again, his voice stumbling over horrified laughter. “’I want Vibe to reach down my throat and liquefy my uterus.’” 

Barry felt his face flame with a blush.

“Wow!” Iris said loudly into the sudden stunned silence of the room. 

Miraculously, Cisco was the first one to recover. “11/10 that person needs Jesus.” The entire room laughed with a small edge of hysteria.

“Okay, I think that’s enough embarrassing Cisco for one day,” Caitlin said.

Barry agreed. The entire thing had gotten out of hand anyway, and he felt bad for Cisco. He was a real person, and people shouldn’t be saying things like that. He said as much out loud.

“Eh,” Cisco said with a shrug. “I already knew the internet were a broken people.” He moved to stand up, brushing imaginary lint off his shoulder. “Besides, can you blame them? I’m amazing.” He turned around just before he reached the doorway and shot the entire room finger guns before quickly turning back around and disappearing around the corner.

With the entertainment over everyone slowly filtered out, HR and Wally to the training room, Caitlin to her lab, and Julian back to CCPD. Iris was the only one who stayed behind, watching as Barry lingered, wandering around the room picking things up and putting them back down, trying to sort out why he was still feeling so unsettled about the tweets from Cisco’s fan club.

“What’s wrong Bear? Caitlin’s mug is not that interesting.” Barry put down the mug he was turning over and over in his hands and glanced at her, she had an amused look on her face.

“Nothing’s wrong, I’m fine.”

“Uh-huh.” The set of her mouth was disbelieving. “You know you’re still the Flash and everyone loves you right?”

Barry was startled. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“You don’t have to be jealous just because Cisco is getting attention now. I thought we already went through this with Wally.”

“I wasn’t jealous of Wally! And I’m not jealous of Cisco.”

“Well something is bothering you. I was putting all my high school drama skills into those tweets and you didn’t even smile once.”

Barry didn’t know where to start to explain what he was feeling, he couldn’t even fully pinpoint the feeling himself. He finally settled for saying, “I’m just not comfortable with people talking about my friends like that.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better they say the same things about you.”

Barry laughed and Iris smiled at him. “You know what? Strangely that does not, in fact, make me feel better.”

Iris squeezed his arm on the way out. “Just don’t let whatever’s bothering you so much affect Cisco okay? This is new for him, he needs your support."

“Yeah, of course,” Barry said, trying to put the ease and reassurance that he didn’t feel into his voice. Iris left him with a last look over her shoulder, and Barry was left alone, still feeling uneasy.

 

Twitter was Barry’s enemy. 

“I can’t believe Lin-Manuel Miranda tweeted about you.”

Cisco did a happy spin in his chair, the light from the windows caught his hair in a distracting way. “Not just tweeted, he offered me tickets to any Hamilton show in the country."

“How does he even know you’re Puerto Rican?”

Cisco placed a finger to his temple. “We’re all psychic and can sense each other.” Barry huffed a small laugh and Cisco shrugged. “I may have helped start a rumor online that Vibe was Boricua.”

Barry frowned. “But why?”

“People were curious.”

“Should you be letting personal information slip? You don’t know what your creepy fans could do with it. And if they figure out who you are they figure out who all of us are.” Barry hadn’t meant to let his tone run away from him; he ended up sounding almost angry, and he realized his heart was pounding. The quelling look on Cisco’s face made him try to reign himself back in. “No one ever wants to know if I’m Scottish or German.

Cisco held up a hand, ticking items off as he said them. “No one cares what shade of beige you are, Barry. My fans are not creepy. And sometimes it’s not enough to know that there’s a person who looks like you out doing cool things, sometimes people want to say hey, that’s _mi gente_.” Barry felt a bloom of shame in his cheeks. “I’m going to go work on something for Wally,” Cisco continued. “Let me know if JLo says anything.”

Cisco stomped past Barry and Barry didn’t try to stop him. He knew his reaction was out of line, but he couldn’t bring himself to apologize to Cisco when he didn’t even know why he’d acted like that in the first place.

 

Once Barry had been made aware that Vibe was considered attractive by the general public he suddenly couldn’t stop noticing the casual way people frequently flirted with Cisco when they were out in public. He didn’t know why he was so surprised, he could see with his own two eyes that Cisco was a good-looking guy with a great personality. But from Cisco’s lack of dating life Barry had just assumed that there were no offers on the table. He was not, unfortunately, surprised by the feeling that flared in his chest when it happened. He’d gotten uncomfortably used to it. Things had been prickly between him and Cisco as a result, they were short with each other, even snapping at each other in the field. The rest of the team had run out of patience with them.

Iris cornered Barry in the hallway outside the cortex after a mission that ended with Cisco and Barry running off to different sections of the lab as soon as they could when they got back, and Wally looking bemused.

“I told you not to let whatever is bothering you affect Cisco,” Iris said, jabbing a finger into his chest.

“Ow!” Barry rubbed at the tender spot on his breastbone. Iris only stared at him, expecting. Barry’s shoulder sagged. “I know, I know, I’m sorry.”

“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to.”

“I know that too!” Barry rubbed his forehead. “I just don’t even know what I should be apologizing for. I don’t know why I’m acting like this.”

Iris rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right.”

“I don’t! Everyone just keeps saying stuff about Vibe, and people keep…talking to him when we’re out together,” Barry finished lamely.

“Are you kidding me Barry?”

Barry hated feeling like everyone else had figured out something he should already know, and he knew he was missing something, but he’d been torturing himself for days without coming up with an answer.

Iris whacked his shoulder, harder than she had poked him in the chest. “You’re jealous!”

“Iris,” Barry said, exasperated that they were having this conversation again. “I’m not, I’m not jealous of Cisco getting attention, he deserves it.”

“Of course he does, but you’re jealous because you have a crush on him and other people are flirting with him.”

Barry immediately opened his mouth to deny it, but closed it again. Her words were the key, slotting all his feelings into places where he could finally identify them. He felt like he needed to sit down. He settled for slumping against the wall of the hallway.

Iris looked suddenly concerned. “Barry?”

“I have a crush on Cisco,” he said faintly.

Iris gave him a fond smile. “Yeah, you do dumb dumb. What are you going to do about it?”

A wave of horror crashed over Barry. “Oh man, I screwed up. I screwed up so bad. I’ve been such a jerk!” He ran a hand through his hair and tugged the ends, chest twisted up in a feeling of dread and anxiety.

Iris placed both hands on Barry’s shoulders, gently this time, which Barry appreciated. “Bear, it’s okay. Just apologize and tell him how you feel.”

“But I don’t even know…” Barry trailed off.

“What?”

“I didn’t even realize I had a crush on him, now I don’t even know what I want from him.” Barry closed his eyes and let his head thump back against the wall.

“Barry, look at me.” He reluctantly brought his head back up to meet Iris’ gaze. “It’s okay that you don’t know, you can figure that out later, with Cisco. But right now you owe him an apology. Okay?”

Barry nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Iris asked, squeezing his arms.

Barry nodded again, more firmly. “Okay.”

“Okay!” Iris looked at him expectantly.

“What? Now?” Barry asked.

“Yes, now.” Iris said. She pulled him away from the wall and turned him in the direction Cisco had disappeared in, giving him a little shove. Barry stumbled but started walking. Each step closer to Cisco was excruciating, his heart pounding with nervousness, but he knew Iris had probably stationed herself at the exit, making sure he didn’t leave before he talked to Cisco.

 

Barry had messed up, he knew he had. He paused at the doorway to Cisco’s workshop, watching Cisco for a second. He was hunched over something Barry had never seen before, and Barry was strangely glad to see Cisco working on something that might not be related to The Flash or any kind of superheroing. A chunk of hair slid into Cisco’s face and he absentmindedly pushed it back behind his ear. Barry had no idea how he missed how head over heels he was for Cisco. He knocked softly on the door frame, and Cisco startled.

He gave Barry an unimpressed look that Barry knew he deserved. “Yes?” Cisco drawled.

“I wanted to apologize,” Barry said.

“Go on,” Cisco said, motioning for Barry to continue.

Barry took a deep breath. “Cisco, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to be a jerk, I didn’t even know why I was being a jerk. I’m not jealous of you getting attention for being Vibe, or people hitting on you in the street because I think they should be paying attention to me instead. I realized I was jealous because I didn’t want you giving attention to anyone but me. I know that’s not any better, and that’s my fault. I’m sorry.”

Cisco crossed his arms, face stony. “So, what, because you realized you were being a dick because you have a crush on me I’m supposed to forgive you for being a dick in the first place?” Barry opened his mouth to respond but Cisco cut him off. “You know, I was actually a little excited when I realized you were jealous. At first I thought you were jealous of Vibe getting attention; let me tell you, it’s a hell of an ego stroke to have The Flash jealous of you.”

“Cisco, I’m sorry. I promise I was never jealous of Vibe, of you, getting attention.”

Cisco held up a hand to stop him. “Yeah, I realized that after the second time the barista at Jitters told me my drink was on the house. And I thought, ‘Oh, cool, Barry likes me too.’” Barry’s heart gave a painful lurch of hope. “But then you just kept being an asshole. I didn’t deserve that.”

“I know, I’m sorry.” He’d keep saying sorry as long as Cisco needed him to, although he hoped he would eventually stop doing things that he needed to apologize to Cisco for.

Cisco seemed to deflate, letting go of the anger that was keeping his frame rigid. He dragged a hand through his hair. “I know,” he sighed. “Just give me some time, okay Barry?”

“Yeah, of course, whatever you need.” He stared at Cisco for a couple seconds longer, until Cisco gave him a nod, undeniable dismissal.

 

Cisco wanted to kick something. He and Barry being on the same page about their feelings for each other should have been a joyous celebration, a jump and freeze frame midair moment. Of course Barry ruined it. Cisco’s feelings for Barry were streaked through with hurt over the way Barry had been treating him lately. He needed time to figure out what he wanted now, time to see if the hurt would fade. It was exactly like Barry to mess up something because he was too emotionally dense to understand his own feelings. Cisco’s heart gave a fond kick at that thought. “Okay,” he muttered to himself, “Probably not the healthiest reaction.” But, Cisco thought to himself, his taste in people had never been the smartest thing about him.

Time. He’d give himself time to stop being mad at Barry, and Barry time to figure out what he even wanted from Cisco. Then after that they’d figure it out together.

 

He should have expected Barry not to take things laying down. To his credit he hadn’t tried to talk to Cisco about his feelings since Cisco asked for time, and they were mostly back to normal. But grand gesture was practically Barry’s middle name and Cisco should have seen it coming. The first thing was the food. Fresh, hot, Puerto Rican food from one of the best restaurants in New York delivered to the entire team courtesy of The Flash. It was more food than they could eat in a month, let alone just for lunch. Cisco watched, amused, as Caitlin lectured Barry about going overboard until Barry glanced at him. He gave Barry a narrow eyed look over his plate piled high with mofongo. Barry gave him a small smile before Caitlin demanded his attention again and he hung his head, rubbing the nape of his neck with his hand. Cisco quickly focused on his food and hoped no one had seen the fond expression on his face. He was still mad, and food wouldn’t fix that, but he could appreciate Barry making an effort.

Barry kept his mea culpa gifts smaller after that, and Cisco felt himself rapidly thawing. He’d completely forgiven him after the team movie night Barry had organized where the only movies they could pick from were Cisco’s favorites, but Cisco’s petty streak was about as wide as Barry’s reckless streak and he might have dragged it out a little longer than necessary.

Caitlin called him out on it when they met for lunch one Saturday afternoon. “Don’t you think you’ve made Barry suffer enough? I can tell he really is sorry.”

Cisco tossed his hair over his shoulder. “Oh, I know. I forgave him like a week ago.”

Caitlin cocked her head to the side. “Then why haven’t you told him that?”

“It’s kinda fun to watch him stress.”

“Cisco, that’s mean.”

Cisco sipped his iced tea. “Is it?” he asked innocently.

 

Because the universe didn’t let Cisco have nice things his pettiness came back to bite him in the ass. He just hadn’t been expecting balloons. He was exhausted and wired and ecstatic and too many other emotions to categorize when he got back from his first successful solo mission that ended with a meta he’d been tracking for days on their way to Iron Heights. When balloons started to rain down from the ceiling, red yellow and black ones that said things like “Vibe is #1”, surprise and exasperation mixed into the emotional soup until he felt a little hysterical. Everyone else in the room looked shell shocked, and Barry looked sheepish.

“Okay, that’s it,” Cisco announced. “Everybody but Barry out.” Everyone obeyed quickly. Cisco could see Iris and Wally silently laughing as they made their way out.

HR stopped to pick up a balloon. “These are outstanding, BA. Did you make them yourself? We should have balloons every day, it’s so cheery. An excellent morale booster.” Wally finally lost it, his cackles echoing in the hallway as Caitlin grabbed HR’s arm and led him away.

Distractions gone, Cisco turned his attention back to Barry who looked like he was about to face down a firing squad.

Cisco kicked out, sending balloons flying. “Barry, this is crazy okay?” Cisco gestured to the room full of balloons. “This has to stop. You are absolved of your sins.” He made the sign of the cross in front of Barry.

“Just like that?” Barry asked, his face looked both hopeful and like he couldn’t believe Cisco was relenting. Cisco did not let himself feel bad for making Barry doubt that he would forgive him.

Cisco gave Barry an exasperated look. “I'm sorry, what part of this has been easy for you? I made you sweat for like a week longer than necessary. You're forgiven.”

“I know this was too much, I’m sorry. I just…I felt awful when I realized I was hurting you because of my own stupidity, Cisco. I’d do anything you asked to make it up to you.”

Cisco shifted on his feet and balloons rub together, latex squeaking. They both tried to ignore it but Cisco could feel the corners of his lips twitching upwards, and a small answering smile was emerging on Barry’s face. “Fine,” Cisco said, “One more thing and then you’re forgiven.”

“Anything.”

“Ask me out. And don’t ever do that again. People flirt with me, it’s a thing. It’s not my fault. Take me or leave me.” Cisco still didn’t know where things would go between him and Barry, but he figured a date was the right place to start, a perfectly normal place to start. Normal sounded pretty good right then, surrounded by hundreds of hand painted balloons. Cisco didn’t even try to figure out when his life had gotten so bizarre.

Barry’s smile bloomed into a full grin. “I understand that now,” he said in a faux serious tone, “and I accept you for who you are, which is a very attractive man, and I promise not to act like a jerk about it from now on.”

Cisco nodded. “Good. Pick me up at eight tonight. Take me somewhere nice.” He felt his heart flutter excitedly when Barry laughed, and he oddly felt a little shy.

“You got it.” Barry said, and Cisco turned to leave before he could embarrass himself after playing cool for so long. “Wait,” Barry said suddenly, “Doesn’t that count as you asking me out?”

“Well,” Cisco said, “I guess that means if you really want to be forgiven you have to make sure tonight goes well enough to ask me out on a second date.” That was really the last ounce of composure Cisco had and he hightailed it to his lab where his nervous energy had him spinning in his chair until he felt ill. Dating Barry wasn’t going to be easy, but Cisco wasn’t too bothered by that. Being friends with Barry wasn’t easy either, but he loved him anyway.

Cisco took a deep breath to center himself. “Focus,” he told himself. He turned to his desk and grabbed the first unfinished project in sight. He had to gather himself and calm down before the date tonight. He couldn’t stop himself from doing another giddy spin in his chair when he thought of the word date, his face stretched in a grin. Cisco caught himself on the desk and planted both feet on the floor before the dizziness could catch up with him again, but the grin stayed for the rest of the afternoon.


End file.
